History

On Christmas, Richie Rover received an Insect-Guy costume as a Christmas present. He tried it on, wishing that he had real superpowers to go with it. When he was then bitten by an insect, he assumed that his wish had come true and that it had been a radioactive insect that had granted him powers. Before his parents could stop him, he jumped out of the window. However, the simple insect bite had not given him any powers and he would have fallen to his death, but he was rescued by Charmy Bee. Still wishing to be a hero, he introduced himself to Chaotix as "Insect-Pup" and tried to fight off one of their villains, the Blazer. Blazer's fire powers nearly burnt Richie to a crisp, but he was pulled out of the way at the last second by Sonic the Hedgehog. Richie, impressed by this new hero (as Sonic was only recently arrived in the Special Zone), asked if he was cooler than Insect-Guy.

Depressed that nobody had allowed him to be a real hero, Richie started crying in an alley. When Sonic found him there, Sonic told him that he didn't need to risk his life to be a hero. Sonic invited Richie to join him and Chaotix in delivering Christmas presents to the local hospital. Richie accepted, and was embarrassed when the local children called Richie one of their heroes for helping out. Sonic gave Richie one last present, to prevent any more "wild fantasies about radioactive insects biting you": a can of flea spray.[1]

Trivia

Richie's bedroom has dinosaur posters on the walls, and a model X-wing hanging from the ceiling.